I wasn’t able to post this earlier, but tonight I got through the “organization” part of my 2016 Topps Update box. The main story to me is – since Topps moved the Update set down to 300 cards, I finished the whole set with one box!
Stats for the box:
36 packs per box * 10 cards per pack + 1 extra card (somehow) = 360 cards
21 doubles
300 of the 300 card set. (100% set completion)
6 First Pitch
6 3,000 Hit Club
4 Fire
4 Chasing 3K
5 Team Franklin
1 All-Star Stitches
When you buy a Topps HTA Jumbo box, you get 3 hits. When you buy a hobby box, you pretty much know you’re gonna get 1 and it’s most likely gonna be a jersey card. You get what you pay for, so to speak.
This box was a prime example of that.
Just one card to show off here, because for Topps 2016 Update I only got the hobby box. As my interest in baseball cards has gone from craze to haze, I’ve got to go with the cheaper option. I pulled an All-Star Stitches card, which is a set I’m collecting from the 2015 Topps set.
Obviously a jersey card of a moderate star doesn’t set my world on fire. But I’ll say, this particular set is always well-done. This card is no different.
Topps actually did pretty well with 2016 Update – not too many insert sets and only 1 felt completely unnecessary. Do I wish it was more like the mid-90’s with just a few? Sure but from this aspect this was a fun box.
First off. No Berger’s Best. Yay! That was a dumb insert set because it had just been done so much. But I’ll start with the set they just didn’t need to do. It’s just not particularly interesting. I think it’s supposed to be “these guys are good hitters and they wear Franklin batting gloves”. It’s not bad. But it’s also not some great, memorable design and I view it as “unnecessary”.
As always, I start with my least favorite and move up to the best. The rest I think are interesting, at a minimum. Topps continued an insert from series 2 and did Ichiro’s trip to 3,000. It’s a bit of a weird set. The 2nd to last card is #2,989. The last card is #3,000. I didn’t get the last one.
Updated Note: After reading the backs a bit more, the advertising for Franklin on the back of the card this set is a damn shame.
The rest of the 3 inserts were all very good (but not great) to me. These Topps Fire inserts are an idea taken from another program and I think look really cool.
First Pitch is back from series 1 & 2 (and from 2015). I want Topps to keeps this coming. I said it in series 2: Craig Sager threw out the first pitch at Wrigley the other day and he’d be a good addition.
I want to say “For the win”, but unfortunately Sager lost his battle with cancer. He fought like nobody before, accepting some levels of treatment that had really never been done before. It’s hard to see this card and not be sad. I’m actually becoming a bigger NBA fan than MLB (blasphemy) and I’ll miss him. But glad he got to do the Cubs first pitch because he was always a big Cubs fan.
Last is 3,000 hit club.
Cool set. Really cool set. But not great because I know #1 (among others) aren’t included and it’s not in either chronological or total hit order.
Here’s my parallel cards from the Hobby box I bought for Topps series 1. I got a few interesting cards, though I didn’t stag anything too crazy. The rainbow foil cards are 2016’s common, non-color inserts. I got 4 of those.
Topps Gold is the one that comes back every year, though 2016 was the first full bleed design, so it gets the honeycomb treatment. The Corey Seager is a pretty good pull.
And I got 2 different “rarer” parallels. First is the negative cards. These are cool and seem to work really well with the design. It’s hard to see who that is, but it’s a guy named Jameson Taillon who seems like a decent pitching prospect for the Buccos.
And I got a Topps Black insert of catcher Wilson Ramos.
Hope everyone is enjoying the March Madness!
Pushing forward with my 2016 Topps Update box break. I did subsets a couple of days ago. Today is regular old base cards. I haven’t gone through to see how much of the set I got quite yet, I just picked out cards I liked or thought were notable.
Topps Update was first known for 2 things – rookie cards. There are a few notable rookies in here, though less than I expected. Maybe time will tell. Maybe Topps just gets a bunch of guys into series 2 these days.
Topps Update, which as any person with true wisdom knows used to be called “Topps Traded” also features guys who were traded. Some were traded (or signed as free agents) before the season…
…others were traded in the midst of the 2016 season.
Finally, like any good set, I feel the need to go through and pick out my favorite pictures. These are my faves of this iteration (though the Trumbo above may be one I like the best).
That’s all for now – inserts are up next.
I bought this box back when it came out, but finally now got around to opening it! 2016 Topps Update. I haven’t opened a new box in a long while, so this was fun. This is the first of 2 posts about the base cards. I’m always intrigued by what Topps is going to include for the subsets in Update.
I’ll start off with the one they always do (at least of late). This represents all-stars from the 2016 game in San Diego. A bunch of interesting cards here. Ortiz played in his last game and was a sort-of guest of honor. Hosmer won the game MVP award. Kershaw just looks funny in Padre colors. And Fernandez is notable for an unfortunate reason – it was weird to pull his card.
The other cards all seemed like really cool photos.
They also have cards of the Home Run Derby. Here’s the current winner and the (at the time) defending champ.
Another subset they have this year is the Rookie Debut. This has been a “sneaky” way to get another card of younger stars that Topps can slap a “RC” logo on. Interesting they put Schwarber on here despite the fact his debut was in 2015.
I think this is new, at least from what I remember – but some guys who are more from the prospect list is a Rookie Combos subset.
There’s also a regular “Combos” subset as well. I always enjoy the corny names in any given year that Topps does this. However, I wish they differentiated the design from the base set for these.
Last but not least, here’s the highlight subset. This showcases the somewhat-controversial professional hit record, tying the single game strikeout record, a no-hitter. And of course. Bartolo Colon hitting a dinger!
This is the last one of these for a while. But it’s the favorite one I bought on the COMC Black Friday sale.
As a reminder, I went to the All-Star game and Home Run Derby in Cincinnati. So I’m collecting this All-Star Stitches set! These cards that have swatches from the Monday practice festivities.
This is the 37th card toward this set.
Card number: STIT-TF
Player: Rod Frazier
How I got the card: COMC in December (Black Friday)
Position: Third Base
How he made the roster: Frazier was voted in by the fans to start at third in front of hometown Cincinnati.
This was his 2nd All-Star selection.
First half stat line: .284/25/57, .585 SLG
Home Run Derby: Frazier was the 2-seed in the derby for the 25 homers he had as of July 7th. In what was probably the coolest sporting event I’ve personally been to, he electrified the hometown crowd and took home the victory.
He took out 2-time champion Prince Fielder, 14-13, in the first round.
All-Star game: 0-3. Unfortunately, Frazier couldn’t bring the hometown fans to their feet two days a row. He grounded out three times.
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